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/ 

PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION, 18(57. 
REPORTS OF THE UNITED STATES COMMISSIONERS. 



REPORT 



PEEPARATIOJS^ OF FOOD, 



W. E. JOHNSTON, M.D., 

HONORARY COMMISSIONER. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

1 8 G 8 . 



COi\TEl^TS 



Page. 

CAFfe Restaurants 5 

The Bakeries and their Bread 7 

Farinaceous Preparations 11 

Gluten Bread 12 

Maccaroni 12 

Concentrated Meats 13 

Truffles and Mushrooms 15 

Coffee 16 

Chocolate 16 

Sugar : 17 

LiEBiG's Artificial Milk for Children 17 



PREPARATION OF FOOD. 



The Great Exhibition of 18G7 contributes certain fticts to our stock of. 
knowledge on the preparation of food which are well worth the attention 
of the public. It is not certain that in the modifications we will have to 
observe much improvement has been made in a hygienic point of view ; 
we are inclined to believe, in fact, that they are rather gustatory than 
hygienic — rather for the palate than for assimilation and the creation of 
healthy blood. But they are nevertheless advances on old systems of 
preparation, and therefore demand a notice at our hands. Whatever is 
new, and especially whatever is likely to differ from modes of prepara- 
tion in the United States, will naturally occupy the largest space in these 
observations. 

CAF:fi RESTAUEANTS. 

The Imperial Commission certainly had a happy thought in introducing 
cafe restaurants as an element of international competition. The real- 
ization has not in fact corresponded to the anticij)ations of the commis- 
sion, for criticisms have not ceased to fall upon the project from the 
beginning to the end. Tlie idea of giving the largest and most promi- 
nent place to the eating-houses was the first and most prominent i)oint 
of attack, and one could not, indeed, at the first sight of an arrangement 
which spreads the Icitchen out over the extended circumference, and hides 
tlie fine arts away in the contracted centre, refrain from an expression 
of astonishment at the plan of a temi^le of ci\ilization which presents 
the stomach before the head. But the Imperial Commission compre- 
hended better than their critics how much inportance the majority of 
mankind give to the material necessities of life, and it is thus that we 
find the kitchen in this great international tournament in the place of 
honor. 

It may be said in a general way in regard to competitive cooking, 
that whatever is common to all is pretty sure to be good, and that 
whatever is peculiar is pretty sure to be bad. If it shows us nothing 
else, the outer circle of the Exliibition at least shows as how badly some 
people live, and this is not without its value. But climacteric influences 
require, or at least lead into peculiar modes of preparing food, and it 
does not at all follow that these peculiarities may not be sometimes 
adopted with advantage by others. The human system is the most ami- 
able of divine creations, and accommodates itself by the force of habit 
to things the most opposite. The Esquimaux are pushed to the eating 
ot blubber b,>' the necessity for a large combustion of carbon in their 



6 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

bodies ; but a man living under the tropics may also drink and thrive 
upon cod-liver oil, and perhaps even upon blubber. So, too, we see at 
the garden of acclimation of Paris the animals of the most opposite 
climes, by care and by force ofhabit, made to live and to thrive together. 

It is nevertheless to be regretted that the cafe restaurants, although 
so admirably placed for the i)urpose, didnot attempt to enter into an inter- 
national competition, and that they did not reclaim nor obtain even an 
honorable mention. By aid of the monopoly granted they appear to 
have entered int(^ no other competition than that of liigh i^rices ; they 
perfected nothing but the art of selling dear their mediocre merchandise. 
After all it was not perhaps the fault of the i^roprietors ; their rent 
was high, and they were obliged to make money. Yet we expected and 
should have been treated to a series of grand competitive feasts, in which 
our palates should have been called to sit in judgment upon all the rare- 
ties of these modern times — upon all the latest cai)rices of the gourmand. 
We had anticipated being called ui)on to taste horse, dog, and l)ear, swal- 
lows' nests, sharks' fins, fish-worms, grasshojipers, and sea-lions. 

When we come to specify, we find that the American restaurant of 
Messrs. Bows and Guild was in no sense a success, nationally, in its 
eating department, and so tar as it was a financial operatiim would have 
been better left at home. But the ice-cream sodas of this establishment 
were one of the successes of the Exhibition, and will remain behind. 
Mr. Dows has taken out patents for the shaved ice employed in the man- 
ufacture of these delicious beverages, and there is already a certainty 
that they are to obtain a wide extension in Europe. 

The English restaurant of Messrs. Spears and Pond appears to have 
been the best financial success of any, and when asked upon what fea- 
ture of their enterprise they based this success, they replied that they 
hardly knew, unless it was to the fact that they published their prices 
and stuck to them. They nevertheless did a large business in "lunches," 
and they sold enormously of English ale and sherry wine. Their hams 
and liquors were brought from England ; but their beef, mutton, and. 
poultrj' were French, and they found them quite good enough for an 
English table, when properly cooked. I am inclined myself to attribute 
their exceptional success largely to the simplicitj^ and general excellence 
of the English kitchen, which is thus suited to the digestion of travel- 
lers timid about their health. 

The French restaurants are said to have lost money. They were organ- 
ized like similar establishments in the city, and did not claim to present 
anything new to the public. 

The Eussian restaurant was successful financially, and made itself a 
nanu^ with its exotic food. It became famous for its caviar, its tea, its 
smoked salmon, its high prices, and the national costume of its waiters. 

Of all the other national restaurants of the Exhibition, the omnibus 
eating-house for the poor, noted only for its economy, and the Vien- 
nese and Munich cafe breweries, appear to have done well. 



PEEPARATION OF FOOD. 7 

THE BAKERIES AND THEIE BREAD. 

I come uow to speak of something of more importauce. The Austrian 
floiu's, the mechanical bakery of Messrs. Vanry & Plonin, of Paris, 
and the Viennese bakery of Mr. Vanner, have made a veritable sensation 
at the Exhibition, and mark a real progress inthemannfactm-eof bread. 
The flours of Austria, and the mechanical bakery, were rewarded ^^'ith 
gold medals ; the bakery of Mr. Tanner received only a silver medal. The 
crowds that constantly assailed these two bakeries showed the imijortance 
that was attached to tliem. No two competitive systems could have been 
more fairly placed before the imblic, or with results more positive. 

The building erected by Messrs. Vaury & Plouin, of Paris, in the 
Park of the Exhibition, is 50 by 30 feet, and two stories high. The cost 
of the building, machinery, and installation was about $15,000. Tlie 
loss to the proprietors, on account of the short duration of the Exhibition, 
will be considerable. The establishnient requires thirty emi^loyes. It 
contains a granary, a fanning-mill, a grist-mill, several mechanical knead- 
ing machines, a machine for cutting the dough into the various formed 
rolls and cakes, five baking ovens, and the engine that puts the whole 
in motion. 

There is nothing peculiar in the engine; any engine may be employed 
that is sufticiently i30werful to propel the machinery. 

The grist-mill possesses no new features ; it is simply as perfect a mill as 
can be constructed, and turns out a very superior flour. 

The dough-kneading machines are several in nimiber and of various 
forms, but all have been discarded but one, M. Vaiuy informs me, the 
superiority of which has been estabUshed in great part by the present, 
enterprise. The discarded machines are mostly oldong, like troughs, 
with tlie kneading wheel turning through their whole length. 

The kneading apparatus definitively adopted as the best by M. Vaury, 
and which appears to be adopted generally with but little modification, 
may be described as a large, flat, iron kettle, two feet in depth, six feet 
in diameter, and perfectly circidar, the middle so filled up with the box 
through Avhich the turning shaft moves as to leave a circular trougli for the 
kneading process only about sixteen inches wide. In this trough tlie two 
Avheels turn which are to knead the dough, afiixed at opposite ends of a 
horizontal shaft, like the wheels of a steamboat. These wheels are oi)en, 
elliptical pieces of ^vi-ought metal, with points bent upwards to catch 
the dough. Half way between them on one side there is a horizontal 
wheel with upright paddles, which performs the duty of constantly 
pushing the dough back to the kneading wheels. With these oi)en 
kneading wheels the dough is rapidly turned and returned until fit for 
baking. A mass of several hundred pounds of dough was thus suffi- 
ciently worked in my presence in seven minutes. 

Tlie nnichine for cutting the dough into cakes is a. cylinder covered 
with forms in zinc, which forms, in passing under the gallery of a hop- 
per filled with dough, catch the dough, give it their shape, and then 



PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

tlll'o^^' it out on receiving boards. It does its work with such rapidity 
as to be required only at long intervals through the day. 

Thirty thousand rolls and crescents are sometimes kneaded, cut, and 
baked, in the establishment of Messrs. Vaury & Plouin in one day. 
The capability of the ovens for baking is entirely out of proportion to 
the capabilities of the various macldnes for preparing the dough ; l)ut 
the capacity of the ovens cannot be in(;reased without a too serious 
increase of expense. 

The construction of theoveus is of jmmary importance; several inno- 
vations have lately been made, of which the most recent and most 
remarkable is tlie introduction of steam into the oven while baking. 
The ovens of this and all good modern bakeries are made on an inclined 
plane, with the flot^r running up from the mouth at as vsharp an ascent 
as the dexterity of the workmen in i)lacing the loaves wdl i^ermit. The 
ovens of IVIessrs. Vaury & Plouin have an inclination of about eight 
degrees. This ascent favors the establishment of ai cui-rent of heat, 
which is better than stationary heat, and it also promotes the circulation 
of the steam, which is now universally introduced into ovens, near the 
mouth, while the baking is going on — an im])rovement which adds 
materially to the beauty and (luality of the bread. In tine, to finish the 
description of the ovens, their mouths are placed low down so as to pre- 
vent the escape of steam or heat, and their domes are made in a tlat 
arch as heretofore. Such is the description of the mechanical part of 
the nmch admired establishment of Messrs. Vaury & Plouin. 

As for the composition of the dough, it is not pretended that there is 
any mateiial improvement; it is simply a question of good Hour, good 
•yeast, good milk, good butter, and good workmanship.^ 

' The following is the formula of a very superior baker as writteri out by himself: "I employ 
any first quality of flour: first quality of milk ; new Schiedam (Holland) yeast, without 
mixture. To *2U0 pounds of flour I put (iO quarts of milk, (75 litres of milk to lOU kilo- 
grams of flour.) I then mix about three-fourths of the flour with the milk very lightly. 

1 beat this well until it contains large bubbles of air. I then add the yeast, (about seven 
quarts soaked in the 100.) I afterwards work in insensibly the rest of the flour, and when 
the dough is well out of the flour, / beat it constantly on itself, until finished, taking great 
care that it does not get warm. I then take it out of the trough to weigh it. The weigher 
nuist be a quick operator, as also the turner. Two masses are weighed at a time, and the 
turner divides them again in two with the under side of the palm of the hand, the thumb 
being held close. The pieces are then placed in the moulds, which ought to be well pow- 
dered with saxogene or bouquetti-, (flour. ) One is turned in each hand. They are then placed 
in a cupboard or on a shelf in proximity to the oven, in a temperature more elevated than 
that of the dough, and covered with linen. They are here left to the operation of fermenta- 
tion, but not too long. When the process of fermentation, which varies in time, has gone 
on long enough, they are placed in the oven to bake. They are first powdered on the bot- 
tom with saxogene. They are then put into the furnace, (which is seven inches high,) one 
at a time, commencing below and going up till the furnace is full. They are allowed to 
cook if the oven is very hot 20 to 25 minutes. 

" In making the dough the milk is heated in proportion to the temperature of the flour. 
"The yeast is simply a compressed and dried composition made from the distillation resi- 
dues of juui])er berries, or chiedam. 

" I do not speak of the oven in detail because it is adapted to the kind of baking required." 



PREPARATION OF FOOD. 9 

Mr. Yamier, proprietor of the Austrian bakery, prefers his work cloue 
by band. His bread is adjudged to be the best of the Exhibition, and 
the niajority of travellers speak of the Vienna bread as incomparably 
superior to all others. I ^^'as naturally anxious in the beginning- of my 
investigations to know ^Ir. Vanner's secret, but I soon found that he had 
no secret at all. He declares that the superiority of his bread is due to 
superiority of flour and of materials, and to careful methods of manu- 
facture. He believes, and this point is conceded, although French 
manufacturers of floiu' were rewarded with the same medal, that the 
Austrian and Hungarian flour is the best flour in the world, and con- 
irihutes the most important j^tirt to the excellence of his bread. He uses, 
it is true, the yeast of Fanta, of Vienna, and believes it to be the best; 
but whether best or not, it requires more watching and more care than 
the Holland yeast. ]\Ir. Vanner's oven resembles the improved oven of 
the French mechanical bakery of Messrs, Vanry & Plouin, only that 
the floor has more inclination. He introduces steam into the oven while 
baking, the same as the French, so that all his bread is cooked in a thick 
atmosphere of vapor. Mr. Vanner arrives at his magniticent results, 
therefore, by the superiority of his material, and by a carefid and labor- 
ious and intelligent manipulation of them. His secret goes no fmtlier 
than this. 

H we turn back now to the mechanical bakery, and make a compari- 
son between the two systems — between the laborious hand system of 
Mr. Vanner and the majority of the bakers of Paris, and the rapid 
mechanical system of Messrs. Vaiuy «& Plouin — we find : 

1. That the machine-manufactured bread is inferior to the hand- worked 
Vienna bread, and also to the hand- worked bread of the majority of 
French bakers. 

2. That, on the other hand, while the hand- working system is costly 
in the great consumption of time, the machine-worked bread is cheap. 

3. That the bread worked by hand is subject to inequalities in excel- 
lence, on account of the more or less want of attention of the workmen; 
whereas in the machine-worked bread these inequalities may never exist. 

4. That, therefore, both systems are good — the one for ludns de luxe, 
or fine bread ; the other for good, ordinary bread, and for cheapness, 
for promptitude, and great rapidity. 

I should add that the general sentiment of the bakers in regard to the 
mechanical bakery is that it is susceptible of a higher perfection than 
that yet attained; that it is destined to universal adoption; and that, 
although hand-worked bread may still continue to be made for those 
who prefer it and can afford to buy it, the machine-made bread is already 
sufliciently perfect for ordinary uses, and cmght to be encouraged. 

On the subject of yeast I have only to state that the bakers of Paris 
use exclusively that nuide in Holland, of which large depots are to be 
found at Paris, whe]'<^as the Austrian bakers use the yeast of M. Fanta, 
of Vienna. The reputation of the Vienna bread has become so imiversal, 



10 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

and the desire to imitate it so great, that the Vienna yeast has been put 
on sale at Paris, and comparative experiments between it and tlie IIol- 
hmd yeast are now being' made by the Paris bakers. 

After saying this mucli of tlie eomparati\'(^ modes of halving, and of 
the ameliorations which have been intro<ln<'ed into this imi)ortant indus- 
try, I am c()mi>elhHl to state that in the opinion of th(^ medical world 
this very tine liour and line bread are not favorable to digestion and 
assimilation ; in other words, that although there is an evident progress 
in a mechanical point of vievf, there is none or worse than none in a 
hygienic i)oint of view; and that if we look at the question in this nu)re 
j)ractical light, our enthusiasm for the inventors must be singularly 
nniderated. We see in effect that birds swallow whole grains of corn, 
and then follow them with pebble stones to grind them ; and digestion 
is too similar a process in all bodies to be ever exactly opposite. Every 
one in effect knows the benefit derived in cases of weak digestion from 
whole mustard seeds and from bread made from unbolted flour. The 
infinitesimal division of the flour and its perfect bolting, which consti- 
tute the secret of excellence in the Austrian flours, create acidity of stom- 
ach and tend to indigestion. The improvement, therefore, which I have 
noted is, as mentioned in the first part of this report, gustatory rather 
than hygienic, and nnist be passed rather to the account of art and lux- 
ury than to that of utility. 

In France dyspepsia is extremely rare; in America every second man 
is more or less dyspeptic. The causes of this frequency are : miasmatic 
influences, (which derange the liver,) bad cooking, hasty eating, hot 
bread, the abuse of liquors, and the excessive use of liquids. In France 
there is no miasmatic influence to derange the liver, the cooking in gen- 
eral is good, uo one eats hastily, hot bread is regarded as a poison, no 
one abuses strong liquors, and but little water is ever drunk. To these 
happy aids to digestion in France ought to be added the benign influ- 
ence of the common table wine of the country, the wine which contains 
not more than from 8 to 12 per centum of alcohol. This kind of ynne is 
certainly strongly tonic, and, according to the opinion of Frenchmen, its 
regular and regulated use renders men more vigorous, more intelligent, 
more sociable, and more sober. The curse of drunkenness is only 
observed in the geographical zones and the social strata where wine is 
only drunk by exception. The man who is able to find on his table 
every day at dinner and supper half a bottle of red wine has no need of 
going to the tavern or the drinking saloon. But these remarks apply 
only to the red wines of France, to the wines of daily use, the wine 
which sustains while quenching thirst, the wine which is, in fine, the 
real comrade of bread. The wines of Spain and Portugal intoxicate and 
brutalize, but neither quench the thirst nor satisfy any reasonabh' desire 
of the body; the whies of western Germany create acidity and thirst, 
and are, therefore, in no sense hygienic. It is only the red wine of 
France which is both moral and logical, and fit for the daily use of every 
man. 



PKEPARATION OF FOOD. 11 

The system of bread-bakiug and bread-eating in France reposes on 
the idea that bread should be eaten in from four to twenty-four hours 
after baking. It shoukl be cohl, and good enough to be eaten even by 
invalids before it is stale. No bread is made in the family kitchen, and 
there is no such thing as hot short cakes, hot corn l)read, and hot Ijuck- 
wheat cakes. It is always the same monotonous, but excellent, cold 
roll, or flute, from year's end to year's end. It is a fundamental article 
of faith that bread, to be Avholesome, must contain as much outside, or 
crust, as possible, and for this reason we see no " family loaves," as in 
England and America ; nothing but the eternal single loaf, suggestive 
of economy, and of that life of individual isolation which forms such a 
desolate feuture in the every-day history of Paris. 

FAEINACEOUS PKEPAEATIOXS. 

The flour of Austria took the highest raidi at the Exhibition. The 
jury awarded to the French manufacturers a medal of gold, the same 
as to the manufacturers of Austria ; but the bakers and the public did not 
hesitate a moment in giving their judgment in favor of the Austrian 
floiu-. The Austrian system of manufacturing Tvill be introduced at once 
into France, and will jirove a money-making enterprise to whoever will 
introduce it into the United States 5 for, however inferior it may be in 
healthfid qualities to the coarser flour, it will yet always command a 
large sale as an article of luxury. The system of manufacturing as piu'- 
sued in Austria must, we are told, be seen to be perfectly comprehended, 
and any one desirous of adopting the system of that country must study 
it on the ground. 

If we consider flour on j)rinciple as a question of hygiene, independ- 
ent of what the public demands, we should say that the best system of 
grinding was that which diaagyreoated the romid and regular molecides 
of the gram of wheat Avithout imlverizing them. Not only is the flour 
better which is conij)osed of separated instead of crushed particles, but 
to sei)arate them is the easiest, the most elementary, and the cheapest 
mode of grinding. Both science and practice condemn the crushing process, 
and yet this process remains the most in use. To the <|uality of the 
grain is due, in the first place, much of the quality of the floiu". The 
bakers of the present day xjrefer flour made from white, tender wheat, 
because it makes whiter bread, and as this wheat is easier ground than 
the harder kind of wheat, the miller also lu^efers it. But the baker 
loses by it, because this very white flour contains less gluten, and there- 
fore produces less bread. The public also lose by it, because it is less 
nutritious, less rich in alimentary jjrinciples, and nu>re of it must be con- 
sumed to produce the necessary amount of nourishment to the body. 
The fact that the hard grains of wheat are richer in gluten than the 
white and tender grains is admitted by science and verified by practice. 
And, so far as France is concerned, this demand of the millers and bakers 
for the white, tender grain has almost excluded the better grain from 



12 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

agriculture. So too we hear often iu France lu these days of the wheat 
being frozen, an accident scarcely heard of at a j^eriod Avhen the harder 
grain was more in vogue. 

Is it not strange to see empiricism invading so serious and so positive 
a matter as that of the culture of wheat and the manufacture of tiour? 
We have a right to be surprised at seeing fashion and speculation creating 
habits in this, exactly as in the trilling aflairs of life; at seeing agricul- 
ture perverted and deteriorated ; at seeing the artificial substituted for 
the natural. The public has thus been taught to. prefer a bread made of 
starch, i)erliaps even heightened in its whiteness by alum ami the sul- 
phate of copper, to a natiu-al and savory and healthy bread, with plenty 
of gluten and nourishment and life in it, because the latter is not so 
pleasing to the eye. 

The thing to be avoided, therefore, is the system of grinding, which 
deteriorates the gluten, the meat of the wheat, which is thus made to pass 
off in the form of acetic acid. We must avoid producing a flour simply 
for the sake of its whiteness and beauty, which, Avhen made into bread, 
is tasteless, laxative, and brittle, and which dries up in a few hours to a 
crust. We must avoid a system of grinding which requires, in order to 
attain the necessary attenuation of the floui-, that the stones should 
almost touch, thus heating the flour and even requiring that it should 
be wet. We must avoid this system of excessive fineness because it is 
both costly and useless. 

I should say finally that what we want is: 1. A hard and hardy glutin- 
ous grain like that of Hungary; 2. A system of grinding which leaves 
the round granules of the grain of wheat separated but not crushed; 3. 
The Vieniui system of baking, which unites to superior materials of all 
kinds an excessive care in all the manipulations of the bakery ; 4. The 
modern oven described above, and which is a great improvement on the 
ancient oven. I should add that the mechanical bakery will be found 
indispensable for the rapid and cheap fabrication of ordinary bread. 

GLUTEN BEEAD. 

The gluten bread employed in the hospitals of Paris for diabetic 
patients is manufactured as follows : Take of gluten flour two iioimds ; of 
fresh yeast the size of a filbert, mixed with a little cold water; of kitchen 
salt two i^inches. Mix, and then add of warm water, at 35 to 40 degrees 
centigrade, a sufficient quantity to make a dough of a iiroper consistency. 
Then ]>lace the dough for an hour and a-half to two hours in a place 
warm enough to operate the fermentation, cut it into cakes, roll them in 
gluten flour, and bake them in the same way as ordinary bread. 

MACCARONI. 

Italy, Algiers, and France, produce the best specimens of this useful 
and healtliy alimentary preparation. As in bread so it is here; the yel- 
low, highly glutinous varieties, are superior in savor and nutritive 



PREPARATION OF FOOD. 13 

qualities to the white, starch-like varieties. There does not appear to 
be any particular improvement in the fabrication of the various pates 
aUmeniaires ; the improvement is more in the extension of the form than 
of the substance. One's Ivuowledge of mathematics is put to route by 
the multiplicity of forms the fabricants of these articles have attained. 

These dough preparations, although not an essential article of diet, 
are yet highly useful, because good and healthy, and because they add 
another to the list of articles which may be kept safely in store for 
table use. 

Of the other farinaceous preparations the one whi(;h has attracted 
most attention is the American maizena, of Duryea, an article which 
needs no description here. 

CONCENTRATED MEATS. 

A certain sensation has been created within late years, I might almost 
say withm the last year, by the various successful experiments in the 
concentration of meats. We begin to see now what must have been in 
former times the sufferings of communities, and especially of caravans 
and of sea foring people, by the ignorance which prevailed on the modes 
of preservation of food for long voyages. We can imagine what priva- 
tions were entailed on a whole community by the ravages of those epizo- 
otic diseases which sometimes swept away the entire race of cattle, 
leaving behind no meat subsistences for the consumption of the people. 
If we come down to our own day we can recall to mind terrible sufferings 
which have passed under our own observations from scorbutic affections, 
caused by the want of fresh food, or of meats preserved otherwise than 
in salt. Vaccination and merciu^y and quinine have saved thousands of 
human lives, and the w^orld is grateful for the discoveries ; so too the 
world is gratefid for those discoveries of science which protect the navi- 
gators of the present day from the frightful diseases which ravaged the 
ships of Christopher Columbus and the bold navigators of the early day. 

We know now, thanks to the discoveries of science and to the inces- 
sant progress of chemistry, that the decomx^osition of meats and vege- 
tables may be suspended almost indefinitely, that fish as well as game, 
that peas or asi>aragiis as well as beef or mutton, may be consumed, with 
pleasure to the palate, several years after being killed or gathered. 

The most important of these preserved articles of food is unquestion- 
ably the concentrated meats. It is not worth while to discuss here the 
question of prioritj' in this progress, nor to indicate the various steps 
gone over before arriving at the present perfection. We have before us 
at the present Exhibition the most precious and the most remarkable of 
all the results thus far attained in the extravfum carnis, the extract of 
meat, of the distinguished chemist of Munich, Professor Liebig. The 
history of this industry is well known. In South America, where cattle 
are killed in masses simply for the hide and tallow, Prof. Liebig sought 
and found a projier field for the profitable working of his discovery. 



14 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

By his process the meat is dej^rived of both its gelatine and its fat. 
Forty-five ponnds of beef is redneed to one pound of extract. Of this 
extract a teaspoonful will make four bowls of soup. Boiling- water and 
salt are all that are required for the operation. The preparation of Lie- 
big, after many trials, proved itself the strongest in its concentration, 
and as far as is knoA^ni is believed to be the most completely inalterable 
in all climates and under all conditions of exposiu-e. French war vessels 
have carried it through the tropics without any si)ecial care, and without 
any signs of fermentation. 

Quite a number of specimens of concentrated beef were exhibited by 
other inventors, one of the best of which bore the mark of Borden & 
Currie, of Illinois. Another superior specimen bore the mark of ^\Tiite- 
head & Co., of Australia. The French and English exhibit many speci- 
mens, and this commerce bids fair to assume in a short time very large 
proportions. 

It is incontestible that these concentrated meats are destined to render 
an immense service. Wlierever it is difiiciilt or impossible to obtain, 
fresh meat, as, for example, on long voyages by sea, or in caravans, or 
in armies on rapid marches, or for the cavalry service, or for himting parties, 
this new, compact, simple, and excellent alimentary preparation must 
come into general use. 

As for invalids, especially those laboring under acute disease, these 
concentrated meats can never take the place of the ordinary beef soup 
and beef tea, because neither their tiavor nor their taste are so temiJting 
to the week and nauseated stomach. A very sick man will always be 
found to prefer the old-fashioned l)eef tea, if well made, to the soup made 
from Liebig's, or any other form of extract of meat which has yet been 
offered for public appreciation. 

The alimentary department of the Exhibition is rich in products of aU 
kinds preserved by reduction in a vacuum, or by desiccation and com- 
pression, for a prolonged use. These processes apply alike to meats and 
vegetables, and are so well understood and so generally adopted as to 
require no particidar description in this place. 

Those articles which have attracted the most attention are the concen- 
trated meats to wiiich I have just referred, and a specimen of preserved 
flour, seven years old. The value of this last discovery cannot be over- 
rated, for by it many a famine may be averted. The nutritive value of 
a floiu' is estimated ordinarily by the proportion of gluten it contains. 
Good ilom- contains 30 per cent, of humid gluten. The preservation of 
the flour consists, therefore, in converting these 30 hundredths of humid 
gluten (which is a highly fermentible matter) into 10 hundredths of dry 
gluten, which, later on, when desired for use, recovers, by being w^et, all 
its primitive elasticity. The flom- must be desiccated mthout being 
altered, and care must be taken afterwards to protect the disengaged 
particles of starch from the influence of heat and humidity. The grand 
problem of the preservation of flour is thus resolved, and the honor of it 
belongs to M. Touaillon, a large manufacturer of flour near Paris. 



PREPARATION OF FOOD. 15 

M. Gentil, of Maus, in France, claims and is awarded the honor of 
a new method of cooking fish for preservation. He applies hot air and 
the metallic bath to the boiling of the oils employed by the mannfactnrers 
of preserved aliments, and for the cooking of fish of all kinds. That is 
to say, the direct and imequal action of the combustible is replaced in 
this system by hot air, obtained indirectly from the heat of the furnace. 
There is an econom5^ of oil, the fish thus preserved are whiter, more tender, 
and of a more regular color than those prepared by the other i)rocesses. 
The progress is claimed as an important one for those engaged in this 
commerce. 

The Fate de Foie Gras is represented at the Exhibition by some of the 
finest, specimens of Strasburg manufacture. This other caprice of the 
fashionable world is the product of the artificial fattening of the goose. 
The goose is stutted to repletion with food for several weeks in fi'ont of 
a fire, and at the end of this time the liver of the animal is found 
swelled to an enormous size with fat. The liver is then cut up and 
mixed with fat fi'om the goose, and with truffles and other condi- 
ments, and then cooked in a case of dough. Paris consumes annu- 
ally of this delicious but rich alimentary preparation to the amount of 
2,000, ()()() francs. It comes into market mostly ti^om Strasburg, but is 
also manufactured at Bordeaux, at Ageu, at Perigueux, and even at Paris. 
We cannot admit that a hyjjertrophied liver, artificially produced, is a 
healthy animal product, and we do not believe that the manufacture of 
])ate defoie gras is a commerce to be commended in this place. 

TRUFFLES AXD MUSHROOMS. 

Some specimens of preserved truffles are also exhibited which appear 
as high flavored and as delicate as the fresh ones just brought into market. 
Truffles, as the reader perhaps knoAvs, are a fungous growth, the result of 
the sting of microscopic insects upon the roots of a certain kind of oak 
tree, in a certain clayey soil, and in a certain district of country. The 
insect stings the oak root to deposit its eggs, and the fungous growth 
called truffle is sujiposed to proceed from a blasted egg. This precious 
tubercle, the last caprice of the gourmand, is not, therefore, susceptible 
of cultivation, and all attempts at transplantation have failed. ISTearly 
the whole commerce of the world is supplied from the department of 
Perigord, in France, but truffles are also found in abundance in certain 
parts of Africa, and have been found in limited quantities in other parts 
of the world. Wliole trees, with roots, and soil, and growing trutfles, 
have been transplanted to other localities in appearance equally favorable 
to their growth, but all these attempts at propagation have failed. A 
successful mode of preservation was, therefoi-e, a desideratum, and for 
this the ei)icureans of all countries will be grateful. 

Mushrooms are also on exhibition preserved by the same sjstem ; but 
mushrooms are more universal in tteir growth, and may even be cultivated, 
as we see bv a demonstration in the reserved garden of the Exhibition. 



16 PARIS UNIVEESAL EXPOSITION. 

A little mouiid of iiuviiure and alluvial soil, arranged in a particular way, 
is made to grow mushrooms at will. 

COFFEE. 

France has a special reputation for the preparation of coffee for the 
table. It is therefore important that 1 should refer to the subject in this 
report. 

The grain used in this country comes for the most part from Brazil. 
The best specimens probably come from Arabia and Eg.^q)t, but only in 
small quantities, and the world hereafter will undoubtedly be supplied 
for the most part from Brazil. The grains from these three countries are 
well represented at the Exhibition. 

Coftee is prepared in France for the table by a system of distillation 
in a small <piantity of water which is now understood and adopted more 
or less in all civilized countries. It is adulterated often with chiccory, 
acorns, gray peas, carbonized beets, roasted rye and barley, and other 
substances. Economy, of course, is at the bottom of these adulterations, 
but the pretexts of taste, color, and even of hygiene, are urged with 
earnestness as an excuse. 

But coffee ought to be, and is, drunk alone by those who understand 
its real hygienic effects. Its use is regarded by those Avho have Avell 
observed these effects as positively conducive to the i)rolongation of 
human life. It acts by moderating the force of the circulation. It blunts 
the biting action of oxygen on carbon. It calms the movement of organic 
disassimilation, and thus causes to be used all sorts of old materials 
which otherwise would be hurried too soon out of the body. The sleep- 
lessness it sometimes produces is not a diseased or pathological condition, 
but rather the establishment of an absolute equilibrium, which reposes 
the various organs of the body as miich as if the eyes were closed in 
sleep. Its action is not to be assimilated to that of medicinal anodynes, 
which also retard the circulation and the elimination of elementary 
particles, for these are followed by an astringency, a nausea, and a 
collapse, which constitute a pathological condition, and they are, there- 
fore, opposed to health. The great secret of the prolongation of human life 
is the establishment by healthy means of an equilil)rium in the functions 
of the body, and it is certain that coffee does contribute in a healthy way 
to this end. It cannot be used in all climates to the same advantage, 
nor by all persons, nor in indifferent quantities. A carefid observation 
should preside always at its use if we wish to obtain its best effects on 
health. 

CHOCOLATE. 

Chocolafe is a favorite beverage in France, and the various prepara- 
tions of this article are well represented, especially in the French section. 
It is a valuable elementary preparation, worthy of a wider use than it 
has obtained, but unfortunately subject to the vilest adulterations per- 



PREPARATION OF FOOD. 17 

liaps of any other article of table use. The adulterations most frequently 
are : cocoa exhausted of its butter, colored fecula, oils, and grains. The 
genuine chocolate of the best fabricants is made about as follows, taking 
1,000 as the total figure : 

Sugar 485 parts. 

West India cocoa 500 " 

Vandla 9 " 

Cinnamon 6 " 

Total 1, 000 '' 



Good chocolate is sold at Paris at four and five francs the pound. All 
chocolate sold under these prices is certain to be adulterated. The high 
price of the genuine article, the facility for frauds, and the well-known 
fact that these frauds are practiced on a larger scale, are circumstances 
which operate powerfidly in limiting the use of what might become with 
good reason an aliment of much more general use. 

The best specimens of chocolate at the Exhibition are those of M. 
Menier, the first manufacturing chemist of Paris, and of M. Devinck, 
the oldest and largest manufacturer of chocolate in France. 

SUGAE. 

Little is to be said on the subject of sugar if it be not that this pre- 
cious alimentary product is represented in almost every nationality of 
the Exhibition, and that each manufacturer is astonished at the perfec- 
tion of the other. No one product j)erhaps is so generally and so well 
represented. The cause of this is, that everything about sugar is posi- 
tive. For example, there are but two substances from which sugar can 
be extracted with advantage to the manufacturer, and these are the 
beet root and sugar cane. These two raw materials defy all competition. 
Then, again, the modes of manufacture are well understood in all coun- 
tries ; so that it is not suri^rising that we see such excellent specimens 
of sugar from countries even where other branches of manufacture have 
thus far acquired but little extension. The manufacture of this article 
has reached, especially in the workshops of France, and with the beet 
root, the last degree of perfection. The rendering of sugar has been 
carried from 5 to 8.J per cent, of the raw material. There is therefore no 
further improvement to be sought after ; the maximum of extraction 
with the minimum of expense has been attained. 

PEOFESSOR LIEBIG'S AETIFICIAL MILK FOE CHILDEEK 

This new important compound, invented by the learned German 
chemist, is not on exhibition only because it does not preserve well. It 
has nevertheless been discussed on the outside as one of the new ideas 
which takes its i>lace in the grand competition of the Champ de Mars, 
and therefore naturally forms a i)art of this report. In this compound 
2 p F 



18 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 

Professor Liebig pretends to have fouud a chemical substitute for mother's 
milk ; his analytical mind and his profound knowledge of chemistry are 
in some soi't a guarantee of its perfection. 

But most peisons will call to mind the discussion provoked by this 
imitated milk in the learned academies of Paris, and the condemnations 
that were there i>assed upon it. The weighty name of Liebig and the 
natural desire of men of science to add a new element of life and com- 
fort to those already known, were powerfid stimulants toward an unre- 
served acceptation of the new compound. The astounding developments 
of mortality among children in France, lately made to the Academy of 
Medicine of Paris, a mortality which reached the frightful figure of 90 
per cent, in certain communes, made men turn their eyes eagerly in 
every direction for new aids in arresting the destruction. So that in 
this apparently insignificant question of infantile food we see a grave 
question of humanity and of iiolitical economy, for the increase or 
decrease, of population is a consideration of a primary importance to 
both statesmen and philanthroiiists. As communities grow older and 
become more compact the number of children to be fed by hand increases, 
and the necessity of new modes of nutrition becomes more apparent. 

Of what does Professor Liebig's famous substitute for human milk 
consist ? The following is his process : A half an ounce of wheat flour 
is boiled with live ounces of skimmed milk until the mixtm-e is trans- 
formed into a homogeneous mass ; it is then taken' from the fire and to 
it is added immediately half an ounce of cross-spired barley, which must 
have been first ground in a coffee mill and mixed with an ounce of cold 
water and a drachm of a solution of bicarbonate of potash, the latter in 
turn made with eleven parts of water to two of the potash. After hav- 
ing added the barley the vessel is placed in warm water or in a warm 
place till the mixture has lost its consistency and has become liquid 
like cream. It is allowed to repose for fifteen or twenty minutes and is 
then replaced on the fire and made to boil for a few seconds, when it is 
removed and poured through a strainer of hair or thread, so as to elimi- 
nate the fibrous parts of the barley. Before gi^^ng the milk to the child 
it is allowed to settle in order that all the fine fibres of the barley that 
may remain in suspension may be precipitated. 

The artificial milk thus prepared contains, according to Professor 
Liebig, the plastic and respiratory elements essential to respiration and 
the nutrition of the body in about the proportion of from 10 to 38 on 
the 100 ; and this, still according to Professor Liebig, is the same as 
human milk. The French professors do not find this statement correct, 
especially as regards the quantity of life-giving principles in human 
milk, and think that M. Liebig took his milk for experimentation from 
a woman in a low state of health. They think that normal human milk 
contains more than from 10 to '3S per cent, of the essential elements of 
reparation, and that, admitting M. Liebig's idea to be a good one, his 
compound is still unequal in force to the fliud it is intended to replace. 



PEEPARATION OF FOOD. 19 

Tills artificial milk has already acquired a considerable extension in 
Germany, England, and other countries, and in many localities it is the 
food fuinished by charitable societies to the children of poor mothers, 
to such as are either obliged to abandon their children or to place them 
in the nursing establishments by the day. No official reports on the 
success of this new system of alimentation have yet come to my knowl- 
edge ; nevertheless, here in France the milk has been tried by Dr. De- 
panl, professor at the School of Medicine of Paris, on fom^ children of the 
Foundling hospital, and they all four died, two in two days, one in three 
days, and one in four days, and all alike with bilious evacuations. 

I do not pretend to know whether M. Depaul's experiments were faith- 
fully made or not ; M. Liebig says they were not. But certainly no man 
is more competent than Professor Depaul to make such an experiment, 
and there is no reason for doubting his good faith. This fatal experi- 
ment, however, has been sufficient to destroy the confidence of men of 
science in France in this new article of food, and it is probable that it 
wiU acquire no great extension in this country. 

In France peoi)le are satisfied in this emergency with cow's milk. 
The milk of the cow, with the addition of one-fifth of water and a little 
sugar, is not only a nearer approximation to human millc, it is the nearest 
approximation of all. Wliy then fly to a doubtful chemical composition, 
when we have at hand so natural and safe an aliment as diluted and 
sweetened cow's milk "? 

Liebig's much vamited artificial milk must therefore take rank after 
human milk and after ijroperly diluted animal milk. But like the same 
professor's concentrated beef, which is highly useful where the natural 
beef is not to be obtained, so, too, this chemical milk may be useful in 
the absence of natiu^al human or animal milk. 

We do not, however, hesitate to give it rank before the numerous 
class of farinaceous preparations, which are increasing every day. The 
chemical composition of wheat flour is such, in fact, that it is not difficult 
to understand its injurious effects on infantile life. It possesses an acid 
reaction, and after incineration leaves phosphatic acids, which do not 
furnish in the process of digestion the quantity of alkali necessary for 
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